A National Know Your Rights Network for LGBTQ Youth

In Mourning & Resistance – Queer Youth of Color Respond to the Murder of Jessie Hernandez

From Get Yr Rights Network Member BSEEDZ:

In Mourning & Resistance – Queer Youth of Color Respond to the Murder of Jessie Hernandez

Jessie Hernandez–young queer Latin@ and murdered by Denver police, presente! On Monday, January 26th, Jessie Hernandez was in a car with four other young people in a Park Hill neighborhood alley. Media has reported that two officers from the Denver Police Department came to the spot where 17-year-old Jessie and her friends were reportedly in a stolen vehicle which the police used as an excuse to fire towards the car full of young people, emptying an entire clip and ultimately killing Jessie. A video of the incident shows Jessie’s lifeless body laying face-down on the ground as the police handcuff Jessie and perform a search, and failed to provide any first-aid or display any care to avoid aggravating the fatal injuries. Witnesses describe watching Jessie’s body get dragged on the ground, and as they pulled out a phone to capture the events, the police yelled out “Don’t you dare!”. A witness on the scene recalls the cop shooting at Jessie through the driver’s side window before the rest of the shots were fired. The so-called reasons given by the police for this murder can never justify why Jessie is no longer with her family, friends, and community.

Branching Seedz of Resistance (BSEEDZ) calls on our local and national community to stand with Jessie Hernandez’ family as they mourn the loss of this young life and demand a thorough and independent autopsy for Jessie’s body as well as a special prosecutor and federal investigation of the case. Jessie’s mother is also demanding to see her child’s body after being refused by the police. We demand safety for the families involved and a halt to the threats the family has faced. We recognize this as far from an isolated incident – Jessie Hernandez’ death echoes the pattern of violence that targets our community and demonizes our young people through racial and gender profiling.

Police violence continues to be a serious and legitimate concern for LGBTQ people of color. Police violence takes many forms including refusal to take a complaint, harassment, discrimination, profiling, unjustified arrest, physical assault, entrapment, and sexual violence. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Program’s report Hate Violence Against LGBTQ and HIV-Affected Communities in the United States in 2013:

Transgender and Gender Non Conforming people of color survivors are: 2.7 times more likely to experience police violence and 6 times more likely to experience physical violence from the police compared to white cisgender survivors and victims.

LGBTQ Latin@ Survivors are 1.5 times more likely to experience police violence when compared to white cisgender survivors and victims.

Transgender and Gender Non Conforming people of color survivors are the most likely to describe police attitudes as indifferent. 48.3% of transgender people of color reported that police attitudes were indifferent, compared to only 7.7% of non-transgender white individuals.

We are disgusted by the media’s coverage and victim shaming of the ending of a young queer brown person’s life in our community. BSEEDZ and the Colorado Anti-Violence Program recognize Jessie’s case as direct result of the pattern of police violence that targets queer and gender non-conforming young people of color in the U.S. We will also continue to support local organizing efforts to end all of Denver Police Department’s widely condemned practices, including that of shooting at moving vehicles, which have resulted in 4 deaths/serious injuries of people of color in the last seven months.

Jessie Hernandez – your life and soul is sacred. Like the countless incidents before this, there can be no justice when media, laws, policies, agencies, and people protect and rationalize our stolen lives. No justification will rationalize the targeting and overwhelming violence towards queer and gender non-conforming young people. While we know that to police, security, and law enforcement–our lives do not matter, we know that our young lives are not dispensable, and with love for life and our people, we demand an end to the murders and disappearances.

As young people we understand that the drivers of this violence are rooted in colonialism, capitalism, and war. And in response to centuries of violence, young people are on the front lines, leading a global movement to end all forms of oppression that impact our lives. From the Normalista students in Ayotzinapa, to the people of Palestine, to all the young people of color in Ferguson, and all global communities in resistance, we stand with you and ask that you stand with us, because we know our struggle and liberation is bound to one another.